Katedra Świętej Marii Magdaleny, Wrocław

Before you rises Katedra Świętej Marii Magdaleny, a Brick Gothic cathedral near Wrocław’s Market Square. Its dedication honours Mary Magdalene, a companion of Jesus. Notice the narrow bridge spanning the gap between the towers: it lends this great brick church an unexpectedly delicate silhouette.

A Romanesque church already occupied this site before the Mongol invasion destroyed it in 1241. Fire then reshaped the story: after the blaze of 1342, rebuilding gave the church much of its present Gothic fabric and its paired towers. Brick Gothic means medieval Gothic architecture executed in brick, rather than carved stone.

This was Wrocław’s earliest Protestant church, and Lutheran worship began here in 1523. War later struck hard. During the final phase of the Second World War, fire stripped away tower spires and the nave roof; an explosion soon tore open a tower and brought down the bridge.

Reconstruction followed in the decades after the war. Seek out the Romanesque portal embedded in the south wall. It came from the demolished Benedictine abbey at Ołbin, making it older than the cathedral around it. As local legend has it, the bridge’s shadows belong to women punished for rejecting marriage and household life.